A Lean and Hungry Look

Plan was to do 1-mile warmup, then 6 at HMP, then 1-mile cooldown.  Drove to Liberty Park so my pace would be honest.  Unfortunately, it was a little too honest for me--the pace was much slower than the effort felt.  On top of that, I was only able to handle 4 miles before popping.  Not sure what was going on, but my heart rate was way higher than it should have been for the target pace (5:55), and the actual pace was far slower than my target.  I have to admit that I questioned the accuracy of the Garmin today.  (I did update the device software over the weekend and initially had a problem with it.)  Compared to past interval workouts at Liberty Park, it seemed like each of today's mile splits came about 0.1-0.2 later than I was expecting.  It was probably just because I was going slower than the effort felt, though.  At any rate, here are the tempo splits:

Mile 2: 6:00 (167 bpm) (I expected a split of 5:40-5:45)

Mile 3: 6:13 (178 bpm--way too high if the split is correct)

Mile 4: 6:11 (180 bpm)

Mile 5: 6:08 (181 bpm)

With my HR so high and my splits so much slower than my target, I decided to cut the tempo short and cool down.  Maybe I'll have to do Wednesday's tempo somewhere else where I know the mile markers so I can figure out whether I was just off today or whether the problem was the Garmin.

Planned day off.

Ran 3 miles up Emigration at a comfortable pace, stopped and stretched for a few minutes, then turned around and did the remaining 3 at what was supposed to be half-marathon pace, but ended up being more like 5k pace.  Splits were as follows:

Mile 4: 5:29 (167 bpm)

Mile 5: 5:26 (180 bpm)

Mile 6: 5:22 (182 bpm)

In the last mile I felt myself going anaerobic, so I backed off a little.  Tired but not wiped out afterward.  Good warmup for WBR on Friday.

Easy 3 without Garmin, just enough to keep loose for Wasatch Back tomorrow.

Trading Paces (#449) was 3rd in the mixed category.  Results don't show overall place, but I think we were around the 13th fastest time once the all-male teams are factored in.  Our team roster was as follows:

Runner 1: Lisa Madsen

Runner 2: Heather Mastakas

Runner 3: Jed Burton

Runner 4: Angie Welder

Runner 5: Lori Allen

Runner 6: Patrick Bodnar

Runner 7: Bobbi Heaney

Runner 8: Andrew Bybee

Runner 9: Jake Thompson

Runner 10: Ryan Bybee

Runner 11: John Moore

Runner 12: Alli Thompson

Leg 3 (4:30 p.m.)

Temperature was in mid-80's, but after the cool spring we've had, this was my first in warm weather, and my heart rate was ridiculously high, especially in light of the slow pace.  Splits were horrendous:

Mile 1: 6:20 (175 bpm)

Mile 2: 6:27 (181)

Mile 3: 6:36 (183)

Mile 4: 7:13 (181) (had a pretty nasty side stich hit me out of the blue--I never get them--so I slowed down in order to have better control over my breathing)

Mile 5: 7:20 (181)

Final 0.6: 6:59/mi (185)

I hadn't felt this awful on a run in years.  The terrain was relatively flat with a slight rise, but there was a headwind most of the way and the temperature just killed me.  I also realized that I hadn't eaten lunch, which may have also contributed to my problems.  Disappointing way to start the race, as my target pace for the leg was between 6:00 and 6:10.

Wasatch Back Relay: Leg 15 (11:30 p.m.)

Temperature was about 55, terrain was gently rolling with a slight overall rise.  This leg felt great.  I put in a solid effort but it didn't feel nearly as hard as the first leg, and the pace was closer to my target.  Splits were as follows:

Mile 1: 5:55 (167 bpm)

Mile 2: 6:04 (177)

Mile 3: 6:05 (178)

Mile 4: 6:06 (177)

Mile 5: 6:06 (177)

Pace was still a little slower than I would have liked, but this was an exhilarating run, just as the nighttime run always is for me at WBR.  I took two wrong turns, so my overall distance was 5.07 instead of 4.9.

Wasatch Back Relay: Leg 27 (7:45 a.m.)

This leg had some steep uphill and downhill and was pretty challenging overall.  Beautiful scenery, though.  As usual, I got less than an hour of sleep, so I wasn't running on a full tank, but I was pretty pleased with my performance under the conditions.  Splits were:

Mile 1: 5:47 (downhill) (165 bpm)

Mile 2: 6:07 (flat) (174)

Mile 3: 6:19 (flat until the end, where the climb began) (171)

Mile 4: 7:38 (steep climb) (174)

Mile 5: 7:34 (up and down) (176)

Mile 6: 6:50 (174)

Mile 7: 6:43 (173)

Last 0.9: 6:20/mi (downhill) (173)

I think my overall pace would have been between 6:20 and 6:30 under better conditions, but I wasn't disappointed under the circumstances.

The makeup of my teams changes every year, but we had several returning runners this year (Andrew and Ryan Bybee, Angie Welder, Patrick Bodnar and I were third-timers; Jake and Alli Thompson and Heather Mastakas were second-timers; Bobbi Heaney, Lori Allen, and John Moore were first-timers to both our team and the race; and Lisa Madsen ran with us for the first time after running it several times with other teams).  Team dynamics were great and everyone performed close to and in several cases better than our projections.  The only disappointment was in a botched exchange at 24.  Somehow we got confused in Van #1 and slept at Exchange 25 and left Alli waiting at 24 for 10-15 minutes while we threw everything in the van and went back.  We were about 13 minutes out of second place when the dust settled, and our mistake may have been the difference.  For future reference, 18+6=24, not 25.

I was a little disappointed in my personal performance, but it gave me an idea of where my weaknesses are and should help focus my training for the rest of the summer as I start looking toward St. George.

 I was planning to get up early for 10 miles with some tempo, but had a rough night with one of the kids and didn't crawl out of bed early enough.  Took the two older kids on a hike to Grandeur Peak (from Church Fork in Millcreek Canyon) and had a great time.  I was going to try to run later in the evening, but ended up having to work on the house (had some water problems in the garage that had to be addressed) all afternoon and evening.  By the time we finished, it was about 9:00 p.m. and I was exhausted.